Thoughts and information on contemporary American Indian issues, concerns, and news. While primarily focused on Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri, national issues and news are also included. Comments are the personal opinions of the blogster and might or might not coincide with the opinions of other American Indians, Tribes, or Organizations. The blogster is an enrolled member of the federally recognized Shawnee Tribe. Comments or questions may be e-mailed to: aihsc@gonmail.com

Welcome

This is a continuation of my comments that were originally posted on a different blog site provided by dakotabogs.com under the same heading of “On The Wings of Eagles” . That blog provider unexplainably, and without prior notice, ceased to exist the first week of April, 2008.

While moving my blog to this new provider causes a minor inconvenience to me, it is a major disruption for my many faithful readers who have had no notice that the blog would simply disappear. I sincerely hope that many of those readers will be able to rejoin me at this new site. Any assistance in distributing this new location would be appreciated.

For those who might be interested, some of my old blog comments can be found in caches by doing a Yahoo search for “On The Wings Of Eagles Threeoaks”.

For continuity, I am starting by reposting the last few comments from the previous site here.

To new readers, and old readers who find me again, I thank you for your time taken to be with me.

Friday, April 11, 2008

IACA Board Under Attack For Supporting P.L. 101-644

Originally Posted 27 March, 2008

Recently, the Indian Arts and Crafts Board has been under attack through Vermont newspapers for it’s stand in requiring artisans protected under the Act to be members of a Federal or State recognized tribe - and not individuals who self-identify as Indians and who are not members of a recognized tribe. Who are these individuals and organizations that have made the attacks?

The decade of the 1970’s started an amazing series of events that included thousands of individuals across the Eastern Coast and throughout the Southeast suddenly sticking their heads out from the underground and proclaiming to be American Indian. The whole show reminds me of little groundhogs who, instead of determining if winter will last longer, poke their heads up to see if they can be “Indian” or not.It didn’t take long for organizers to gather up complete strangers and form Indian “bands” that “existed from time immemorial”. One such group, formed in Vermont during the mid-1970’s, called itself the St. Francis /Sokoki Band of Abenakis. It didn’t take long for the organization to add it’s name to the clogging arteeries of the BIA Federal Recognition folks.

After extensive studies of the organization, it’s claims, and it’s individuals, the BIA declined to recognize the group as a “tribe” in 2007.Besides failing four out of the seven mandatory criteria for acknowledgment, it was found that only eight individuals out of the 1,171 members could demonstrate descent from a Missisquoi Abenaki Indian Ancestor. Non of the other members could document ancestors from the Abenaki, or any other Indian tribe. All eight descended from the same person, Simon Obomsawin (originally from Canada) . In addition, these eight did not become involved with the group until the 1990’s.

As in other states and their “Cherokees”, other Vermont “tribes” and “bands” also soon began forming, most claiming to be some type of Abenaki. None of these groups can be identified as existing before 1975.Jumping forward to 2006, Vermont passed a law to recognize individuals as Indian in attempt to surpass the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. Since the IACA requires membership in a recognized tribe, the 2006 law fell far short of what was attempted. A more recent attempt, S.369, is trying to recognize three Vermont “Abenaki bands” (the St. Francis/Sokoki, Koasek and Nulhegan), again for the expressed purpose of selling arts and crafts.

The newly proposed Vermont Senate bill is receiving opposition from some of the “bands” who feel that they will be left out of the process. Even those group included in the bill don’t like it. April Merrill, chief of the St. Francis/Sokoki Band, opposes the bill because it would require the revealing of member’s geneaology. She says that “the information could be used to discriminate against Abenaki who have fought discrimination for generations“. Perhaps the real reason might be that the BIA couldn’t find any members with Indian ancestry other than the eight mentioned above?

I’m sure that Vermont will eventually have some state recognition process so their folks can participate in selling their wares. I’m not so sure that their process will have much actual validity. As a reminder, Vermont is also one of the states that is pushing for DNA as an Indian identifier.Another Federal inconsistency in spending funds also enters into to the picture. I’ve commented on mismanagement and the misspending of Indian funds numerous times before, but this gives you another idea how extensive the whole problem is. Jesse Larocque, a member of the St. Francis Sokoki Band of Missisquoi Abenaki (the group that miserably failed it’s federal recognition attempt), is using the receipt of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as a “master Abenaki basket maker” for ammo against the IACA Board in that he claims this makes him recognized as an Indian artisan by the federal . When contacted by the Board to cease selling his items as “Indian”, he replied: ‘’Perhaps you may want to level your guns in a different direction.'’ In addition, the fact that the St. Francis Sokoki Web site is funded by the Department of Agriculture is also used to claim that the government recognizes the group. For those readers who are unaware, the DOA is one of the top four governmental agencies that squander funds designated for American Indians.

Larocque’s claims remind me of similar past claims made by William Scott Anderson (alias Blue Otter, AKA Runningbull, AKA Strongeagle, AKA Prophecy Keeper), one of the founders of the “Amonsoquath Tribe of Cherokee“. Anderson claimed that the group was “affirmed as a sovereign nation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services“ because of Indian monies grants. The “Amosoquath” have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in “Indian” funding over the years from federal agancies to buy everything from postage stamps and paying office help to the construction of buildings. These are also the folks who started their group off by claiming to be direct descendants of Pocahontas who moved to Missouri.

Such similarities are often found between many new “tribes”, as are connections to one extent or another. In the case of the Abenaki, the group attempted to show that it existed in the early 1900’s by submitting a pocket watch to the BIA that had the inscription “Presented to Arthur Stevens May 16 1918 from the Abenkai Tribe for Faithful Work”. Whoa now, how can this be if the group claims that it was living a hidden existence and no one knew they were there? Quite a contradiction.

Easy, the watch was shown to have been a presentation piece from the Improved Order of Red Men. The IORM is a fraternal organization that date’s it’s origin back to the Boston Tea Party and was originally known as the Sons of Liberty. Native Americans were not allowed membership until 1974. The IORM had chapters all across the U.S. that were named after tribes and other Indian sounding names - including “Abenaki” chapters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. Another group that has misused the IORM to show Indian history in an area is the “Manataka American Indian Council” of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Larocque’s claims remind me of similar past claims made by William Scott Anderson (alias Blue Otter, AKA Runningbull, AKA Strongeagle, AKA Prophecy Keeper), one of the founders of the “Amonsoquath Tribe of Cherokee“. Anderson claimed that the group was “affirmed as a sovereign nation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services“ because of Indian monies grants. The “Amosoquath” have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in “Indian” funding over the years from federal agancies to buy everything from postage stamps and paying office help to the construction of buildings. These are also the folks who started their group off by claiming to be direct descendants of Pocahontas who moved to Missouri.Now we can go from a similarity to a direct connection.Manataka is not a Native American organization, but one of the worst exploitive organizations of American Indian history and traditions. Based on “New Age” concepts of the American Indian, MAIC claims that aliens blasting crystal caves into the mountains around Hot Springs and that the Mayan goddess IxChel sleeps under one of the mountains. The Abenaki used a set of essays provided on the Manataka web site to bolster their claims. These essays, attributed to “Little Mother” and “Blue Panther, Keeper of Stories”, had absolutely no documentation as to their validity.Indian artisans and crafts persons of Federally Recognized Tribes can start tightening up their belts some more. Vermont will eventually get it’s state recognition under way. You face more competition in the Indian arts market by individuals belong to state “tribes” without historical existence.

Last comments on this subject. The National Endowment for the Arts mission is given as “to enrich our Nation and its diverse cultural heritage by supporting works of artistic excellence, advancing learning in the arts, and strengthening the arts in communities throughout the country.” When dealing with Indian “cultural heritage”, they really don’t care if their grants and promotions go to real Indians, or not. The same is found with many different state “Arts” agencies. Perhaps the worst offender that I am aware of is the Arkansas Arts Council. Arts Councils in other states that have promoted non-Indians as Indians include Oklahoma, Missouri, and Utah.